Other Woven Wire Books
___________________________________________
|
|
Great Wire Jewelry by Irene From Petersen
This book starts out with a thorough list of materials as well as good, solid review information about oxidizing (blackening metal) and polishing the finished wire jewelry projects it offers. The rest of the book is quite meaty and gives very precise techniques for making many types of wire jewelry. Great Wire Jewelry, true to its’ title, is a great book for every level of wire jewelry artist from beginner to pro.
Great Wire Jewelry starts out teaching how to create Viking Knit which is currently a very popular stitch for woven jewelry. There are 11 large step-by-step illustrations that make the technique extremely easy to grasp, review and follow while building your piece on a mandrel (you don’t need to know how to do traditional knitting to do these projects). The great part is that following this is a gallery section showing 17 finished projects to make with the Viking Knit technique. Best of all, each of these 17 projects has its’ own detailed instructions to follow. It’s really hard to make mistakes when a book is this well laid out and detailed in its’ instructions.
This section is followed by teaching the reader Twisted Open Viking Knit, which the book explains as open, single knitting. Again, you don’t have to know traditional knitting to complete these projects. Actually, the techniques in this book are much easier than regular knitting. There are 4 projects in this section and then the book provides a great review of braiding wire, wow. This is followed by the technique of knitting on 3 nails and Crown Sinnet Braiding, a way to make woven, hollow tubes which is remarkably simple and fast. There are multiple, gorgeous projects (I counted 10 in these sections) for each of these different technique sections as well as the very clear illustrations.
The remainder of the book is about making jewelry from rings called jump rings traditionally known as Chain Maille or Chain Mail. I counted 16, yep 16, different linking patterns and projects in this section. For those of you who don’t know, Chain Maille is a technique of simply putting little round wire circles inside of other little round wire circles in a pattern to make absolutely stunning wire jewelry. New as well as established wire jewelry artists often include Chain Mail in their techniques and finished jewelry because it’s easy to do (if time consuming) and has a very appealing look. A great place to start for beginners.
As if having nearly 50 stunning, elegant wire jewelry projects in this book weren’t enough, the author has included instructions on making a few of your own findings (the pieces that go on the ends of jewelry to finish it off like hooks, clasps). She also includes special little tidbits of explanation about why things are done a certain way and warnings of things to avoid mistakes. She really knows her stuff!
In conclusion, my only criticism of this book would be that you will need to some flipping of pages to match pictures with instuctions although that’s a small price to pay since everything is illustrated and mapped quite well. As I said before, Great Wire Jewelry: Projects and Techniques lives up to its’ title better than most books. It’s thorough, jam packed, well illustrated and well, just plain fabulous!! More details and ordering info here.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Great Wire Jewelry starts out teaching how to create Viking Knit which is currently a very popular stitch for woven jewelry. There are 11 large step-by-step illustrations that make the technique extremely easy to grasp, review and follow while building your piece on a mandrel (you don’t need to know how to do traditional knitting to do these projects). The great part is that following this is a gallery section showing 17 finished projects to make with the Viking Knit technique. Best of all, each of these 17 projects has its’ own detailed instructions to follow. It’s really hard to make mistakes when a book is this well laid out and detailed in its’ instructions.
This section is followed by teaching the reader Twisted Open Viking Knit, which the book explains as open, single knitting. Again, you don’t have to know traditional knitting to complete these projects. Actually, the techniques in this book are much easier than regular knitting. There are 4 projects in this section and then the book provides a great review of braiding wire, wow. This is followed by the technique of knitting on 3 nails and Crown Sinnet Braiding, a way to make woven, hollow tubes which is remarkably simple and fast. There are multiple, gorgeous projects (I counted 10 in these sections) for each of these different technique sections as well as the very clear illustrations.
The remainder of the book is about making jewelry from rings called jump rings traditionally known as Chain Maille or Chain Mail. I counted 16, yep 16, different linking patterns and projects in this section. For those of you who don’t know, Chain Maille is a technique of simply putting little round wire circles inside of other little round wire circles in a pattern to make absolutely stunning wire jewelry. New as well as established wire jewelry artists often include Chain Mail in their techniques and finished jewelry because it’s easy to do (if time consuming) and has a very appealing look. A great place to start for beginners.
As if having nearly 50 stunning, elegant wire jewelry projects in this book weren’t enough, the author has included instructions on making a few of your own findings (the pieces that go on the ends of jewelry to finish it off like hooks, clasps). She also includes special little tidbits of explanation about why things are done a certain way and warnings of things to avoid mistakes. She really knows her stuff!
In conclusion, my only criticism of this book would be that you will need to some flipping of pages to match pictures with instuctions although that’s a small price to pay since everything is illustrated and mapped quite well. As I said before, Great Wire Jewelry: Projects and Techniques lives up to its’ title better than most books. It’s thorough, jam packed, well illustrated and well, just plain fabulous!! More details and ordering info here.
_______________________________________________________________________________________